LITTLE ROCK (AP) — A vote on a plan to use federal Medicaid funds to purchase private insurance for thousands of low-income Arkansans was delayed Friday as House leaders tried to rally support needed to pass the program’s budget.

House Speaker Davy Carter announced that the vote, originally set for Friday afternoon, would instead take place Monday to give lawmakers more time to talk about the plan with their constituents. The plan won support from most House members Thursday, but it didn’t get the 75-vote supermajority needed for an attached budget bill required to implement the program.

Carter, a Republican, said postponing the vote would allow some lawmakers in his party to make their case to constituents why expanding health care coverage with the “private option” is the best way for the state to deal with the federal health care law — a policy that many GOP lawmakers campaigned against in the last election when they took control of the Legislature.

“It’s still emotionally charged and there’s still a belief out there that the General Assembly can somehow stop the implementation of the Affordable Health Care Act. It’s not possible,” he told reporters Friday. “What we’re trying to do is something completely different than what they think is being done.”

Republican legislative leaders and Gov. Mike Beebe are touting the idea as an alternative to expanding Medicaid’s enrollment under the federal health care law. The plan calls for Arkansas to take the federal money intended for Medicaid expansion and use it to instead buy private insurance for 250,000 low-income residents.

Beebe said Friday that Carter’s decision to delay the vote was an attempt to accommodate undecided lawmakers.

“I think it reflects the fact that he’s got several on the fence that have requested that they be allowed to go home and explain it before they vote on it, and I think he’s accommodating them,” Beebe told reporters.

Republican lawmakers planned to hold town hall meetings across the state over the weekend to discuss the proposal.

“It will give us a truer picture of where people are at,” said Rep. Bruce Westerman, the House GOP leader, who opposes the bill and planned to attend a public forum in Mena over the weekend.

Rep. Andy Mayberry said he supports the private option, but wanted additional time to explain the proposal to constituents at a town hall Saturday afternoon.

“I don’t know that people fully understand what it is, what it does, the safeguards that are in place,” said Mayberry, R-Hensley. “I don’t think people understand the potential ramifications of doing nothing or saying no.”